The other thread was getting a bit long in the tooth, soooo.....
Discuss and share any Virginia Tech related recruiting topics from December 2019 [0] that don't warrant their own thread [1]. Please do some digging to share original content (e.g. embed the original tweet, not a link to another post/website with said tweet), add context / relevant information and respect the Community Guidelines.
[0] If someone would like to make this thread from month-to-month, let Joe know, he is apt to forget and pressed for time. Or simply copy the boilerplate and start a new thread.
[1] New commitments, decommitments, portal entries, etc... deserve their own thread. Please read the brief best-practice tips at the top of the recruiting forum.
[2] is the only even prime number.
Comments
We will probably have a separate thread for ESD next week so that should help keep things organized as well.
Electrostatic Discharge next week?
I can understand your confusion, but it's actually Engineering Society of Detroit day.
I understand your confusion, but it's actually Elmo Saves Disney day.
ESD is Emergency ShutDown in my business, which we may need for a signing day thread....
I wonder what the Equivalent Spherical Diameter would be for the number of turkey legs given in the signing day thread?
I fear we'll suffer from Extreme Signal Distortion on that day.
I just pray we never have to deal with Erectile Shrinkage Dysfunction.
I'm not looking forward to playing South Carolina's cocks in 14 years
Pretty sure if it lasts that long, you need to see an Erection Specialist Doctor.
Posted in the old thread, but wondering if we'll start targeting different D-Line recruits, or if it's too late in this cycle to go after different guys, especially since we haven't named a new D-Line coach yet?
It's been pretty widely assumed that was a major reason for not retaining Wiles - ie going after bigger d-linemen who are more highly ranked. Also been speculated that's what Ham wants: bigger DL. Same goes for Mitchell. Not that they're going after different types of CB's now, but he wasn't closing on higher ranked recruits and that's why he was let go too. Both coaches were great developers, but weren't so great at landing the bigger recruits. The staff moves recently all seem to point out that VT and Fuente are going to be much more aggressive recruiting bigger targets from here on out.
Yeah, I'd seen on here that we wanted to go bigger, just wasn't sure that would make it into the 2020 recruiting class.
recent signs point to encouraging progress in recruiting a few DEs from texas for the 2020 class
Key word here is "speculated".
If only it was as easy as "ok, now that Wiles is gone we'll be more aggressive and will get bigger, higher rated DL".
And while we're at it let's make sure everybody else - especially those schools with $150M athletic budgets and/or located in recruiting hotbeds - stops recruiting those bigger, higher rated DL...
Easy, peasy.
Obviously we will say pretty please and text them more often. I don't see the problem here.
FTFY.
I enjoyed notation 2 as a math major in the body of this thread...well done
A dude I know said he saw Dematrius Davis with Brandon Campbell, Alec Bryant, Robert Wooten and Landyn Watson at the basketball game last night.
Edit: I told him I was skeptical that DD and BC were there because they are class of 21 and it would be unusual to take a mid week trip but he was adamant that he saw them. The others make more sense if they want to sign in Dec.
Edit2:
via GIPHY
Should have known better than to give that rumor any cred.
Gimme all pls
Watson is also 2021.
Thanks, Simone
Why does she say 31 Flavors instead of Baskin-Robbins? Did people used to call it that? Could they not clear it with the lawyers? This has bothered me for quite some time.
For whatever reason, on TV, they always call it 31 Flavors. I think I was watching Seal Team on CBS and they called it 31 Flavors. Could it be a west coast/east coast thing?
Ferris Beuller's Day Off is set in Chicago.
So, definitely.
Was 31 Flavors until High School when I looked at the sign more carefully and realized that was the slogan and not the name.
If this is true...
I guess it's totally possible they're out for winter break already?
Yeah whoever told you that was lying to you. None of them are on campus. DD, BC, and Watson don't have plans to visit anytime in the immediate future. Bryant has a state championship game tomorrow night and doesn't get in until Saturday morning. Not sure when Wooten is coming in exactly, but it's either tomorrow or Saturday.
This lines up much more with what I expected.
Live look at our recruiters on the road
coach beau just retweeted this, could it be a sneaky reference to three friends coming to VT as a package deal?
I would have bet money that movie was released in early 90's.
Did you guys know that they released the Three Amigos in Spanish speaking countries as Tres Friends?
So...Powell to Rutgers now?
Guess it makes sense with us letting Mitchell go and Schiano bringing some excitement to Rutgers..we were bound to lose a couple commits with the staff turnover. Was he projected as a safety for us?
Backer, and he is the recruit that most people were highest on. This would be a big loss, and I was nervous about this as soon as Schiano went back to Rutgers. We still have a shot... if he comes to his OV this weekend.
Realistically, how long will it take for Schiano to rebuild Rutgers?
VT should still measure favorably in that comparison, even with Mitchell gone. Even if Schiano has a helicopter.
It took him 5 years to make a bowl and 6 years to get his only double digit win season the first time around.
In the Big East.
Big East is the only conference in the BCS era-present to have a winning record against the SEC and actually regularly won their BCS bowl games. We (ACC) don't really have much room to talk shit about them.
That's because you regularly see matchups like BE #3 v SEC #8. Sure you're going to do better than if you were matching up #1 v #1, #2 v #2, etc.
It's also why Notre Dame has such a crappy bowl record, because they keep getting matched up with teams that are much better than they are.
I realize how that happened, but we should point out that we also often (and still to this day) have favorable bowl matchups. The CFA bowl for many years was ACC 2nd choice vs SEC 5th/6th choice. The ACC has a losing record comfortably over that time period. So while it's an imperfect measurement, it is still impressive that they were the only conference to achieve that.
Additionally, when matched up against the best teams from other conferences (BCS bowl games) the Big East was one of three conferences to have a winning record in those games at 9-7. The Pac 12 and SEC also had winning records in BCS bowl games.
It's also why BC won like 12 bowl games in a row or something. When you only bring 27 fans, you usually slip down the bowl ladder and end up playing a team you're favored against.
Correct.
All bowls aren't created equal.
Can you imagine if "Eat Shit" PITT loses their bowl game to Eastern Michigan this year.
When he coached there? This was the Big East without Miami, VT Or BC. The best teams most years were WVU and maybe Louisville. He rarely took that team above 5 conference wins at best. Yea the Big East when he had his three good years wasn't murderers row.
Now the fact he took Rutgers to any heights of winning is impressive but I wouldn't compare them then to the ACC and now he has to try and do it in the BIG ten. Good luck.
Agreed. The Big East prior to the VT/Miami/BC exodus was actually a pretty strong league. You had us and Miami, Syracuse was a consistently ranked football power back then, as was Pitt and WVU, and BC was always solid. The Big East light of the Rutgers glory days was a shell of that former conference.
Disagree. Louisville, WVU, USF, Cincinnati, and even UConn had good teams during Schiano's run at Rutgers. It wasn't SEC talented or anything, but those teams were solid and competed well. Beating the ACC, Big 12, and SEC in BCS bowl games around that time.
What Schiano did at Rutgers given where that program is an incredible accomplishment.
This was a post about Schiano trying to win at Rutgers in the B1G but okay?
Your little addition of "in the Big East" was clearly a disparaging framing device to make his accomplishment seem less impressive.
The era he won in the Big East was not trash, and it was a very impressive accomplishment to revive that program in any situation, so I think my response is quite relevant and reasonable. Nobody expects him to suddenly compete in the B1G East division, but there is a reason people around Rutgers have confidence in Schiano.
Man you seem real worked up about this, but if you want to believe the Big East without VT or Miami is stronger than the B1G East that's fine. That's all I was trying to say, that the B1G East > the Big East.
I never said anywhere it was tougher than the B1G East. I have said many times on here that I think the B1G East is very tough and the second toughest division in the country.
You got snarky first, by the way. So don't turn this on me.
You accused me of talking shit on behalf of the ACC when I wasn't.
You were attempting to disparage Schiano's accomplishments by disparaging the Big East when history suggests the Big East wasn't as bad as you think. I brought the facts, you brought the sass.
🆗
A helicopter is cool and all, but VT is a slam dunk over Rutgers.
Thank God they cropped the pinky out.
That is an understatement for sure!
How do you keep JHam from crossing a street?
Don't walk sign, just like everyone else. Duh.
I think I'd be surprised if that happens. In-state school getting back in the mix late makes sense, but it'd be quite the flip and he just had his in-home from Fu and Ham/Prioleau in-person visit
we're gonna need a bigger plane
This guy's 247 profile is pretty funny. Really pixelated picture and almost no info whatsoever ... except that he is being recruited by VT
https://247sports.com/player/wilfried-pene-46097216/
Yeah I don't think 24/7 has resources to start grading overseas guys lol
Looks like his team plays on the local Pop Warner football fields.
How is his last name pronounced?
Pen-ay?
Peen?
Pee-nay?
Kev-in
Pwn
Any idea what we are recruiting him for? Looking at his twitter it looks like he plays TE and DE.
TE - 8 rec/200 yds and 4 TDs
DE - 2 blocked punts, 2 FF, 14 Sacks, 1 Safety, 32 Tackles
Something something QB
Or offensive tackle.
wow. Lecht and Corny sure look...different
*looks closer* ...The leather jacket is actually a trash bag?
Vance Vice approves:
His "home" looks like the office of HS coach...
You mean your living room isn't cinderblock with your HS colors painted around the room? Is that just me?
What are the chances of a couple more coaching announcements? With all the TX2VT OV's it would be nice if they could meet their position coaches while in town.
Anybody else watch Kaden Moore's tape? The kid we're trying to flip from Bowling Green. Dude is N. A. S. T. Y. https://247sports.com/Player/Kaden-Moore-46081202/
He certainly looks mean in the videos but....His competitors do not look large. Any idea what type of competition he faces?
As a guy who was undersized and played DE in high school, this guy's film kind of triggers me.
Welp I was wrong
I guess the helicopter is impressive, after all.
Also, something something fired his primary recruiter
That's the chance you take.
He doesn't say to respect his decision so I don't.
Enjoy the Rutger campuses...
Did we really just lose a recruit to the B1G unwanted step kid?
Nah, Maryland wasn't even recruiting him.
The positive is we can use that scholly on one of the Texas dudes hopefully
It's a lot more frustrating to me at this point that the 2020 class looks more and more like a mulligan, "with a focus on 2021" or whatever when the future Defensive Coordinator was already on staff and by all accounts, Fuente and company were pretty sure he was going to be the guy.
What would you have wanted? For coaches to show up and say this here is Justin Hamilton and he is probably going to be our defensive coordinator unless we can make some other homerun hire? Or would you have him formally pick Justin a few games into his coaching career and prior to having a formal coaching search?
Is there an indication that a formal coaching search was really made? Or is it more likely that Fuente, who largely shows an (understandable) interest in working with coaches he knows, to have known this would be his plan all along?
By all accounts, Fuente was in favor of this move from the jump and Bud considered this whole season to be a long tryout for Hamilton. People seem to blame how bad the 2020 class is on the staff turnover - you couldn't decide to make this internal move at least any point before the end of the regular season, so that you don't have a ton of empty coaching spots a week before early signing day, and recruits are literally citing that as a reason they de-committed?
Steven Godfrey reported that Ashe was 'in talks' with VT. There were also comments from people who are connected (BAG and 904) that Odom was given serious consideration. Plus, if the plan all along was to promote Hamilton, I would think they would've announced it earlier in the season.
what accounts are those? fuente said he interviewed well, not that they decided a long time ago
He speaks a little about here in the Belk Bowl presser. The whole presser is a decent watch.
My thoughts on the 2020 class heading into the home stretch of ESD:
I'll state the obvious quickly, and won't dwell on it too long. No matter how small a class, we should never have the 95th (last in ACC) ranked recruiting class, ever. There is no amount of explanation that makes this okay. Our avg. recruit ranking is 12th in the ACC slightly ahead of Wake and Cuse, that is not the company we should ever be in.
Losing Tyreem Powell is a noteworthy loss. High ceiling prospect at a position (Backer) that is a little tricky to find the right players for. We don't have anyone else in the class who projects there, and it's always risky to skip a position group because it could lead to a situation where we don't have a true Backer and have to play someone else there (Dax) who is not an ideal fit for the position.
To the positives, this class being so small is actually a good thing. This is the best possible year for us to lay an egg on the trail because with fewer spots this tough recruiting cycle will have less total impact on our roster moving forward. It would be absolutely awful if we needed to take 25ish guys in this cycle with how we've done so far this year.
We can still close with a solid haul of players at KEY positions of need. I'll start with the position we already have a lot of guys committed for, RB. With all the rumored attrition in the RB room, I think this class could lead to a solid upgrade there. I'll count transfer Khalil Herbert in this for this reason, immediate veteran impact at the position, also potential to have a really strong season for us. JUCO Marco Lee gives us another more "college ready" body at RB and the big back we didn't have this year (see Dalton Keene getting carries...). I can't speak much on Jalen Hampton, but the staff seems to be high on him. The one I am really excited about is Jordan Brunson. I'm not sure why he isn't rated higher tbh, I've heard rumors of some qualifying concerns which sometimes artificially holds down ratings, but his senior film is exciting and he also provides a long-term version of that bigger, more traditional RB.
At safety I feel pretty good about Lakeem Rudolph (rating potentially held down by having gone through a very serious motor vehicle related injury) and Keonta Jenkins. Perhaps somewhat irrationally, I always give a little more faith towards prospects from FL, even lower rated ones. We've just had a lot of success stories of lower rated 3* guys from FL having big impacts in Blacksburg.
Now, we have the opportunity to close with HUGE wins at perhaps our biggest need position, DE. IF, and that's a big IF, we close with Alec Bryant and Robert Wooten at DE, that is a HUGE win for this class. Not only would that spike our ratings/avg. rec rating, but those would be huge recruiting wins with very good prospects at a position of need, AND help establish a legitimate TX2VT pipeline. I think if we land these two we will see a huge shift in the way the fanbase feels about this class. That would be a hell of a close.
Speaking of strong closes at a position of need, we have an opportunity (and I am not an insider so I can't speak to how good a chance) to land Tee Denson and Dwight McGlothern at CB. Both would be very good pickups imo, and McGlothern would further this momentum we seem to teetering at the edge of the cliff with Texas.
As for the rest of the class, I feel like Tyree Saunders will be a definite contributor down the line at WR, and if we can get a hit on any of the other guys, like maybe a developmental success story with Parker Clements or Derrell Bailey that would be about the best we could hope for out of this class.
This being a small class, and having a strong start to 2021 could create a situation where next year's class fills in and covers for a lot of the misses of this class anyway. Way too early to tell how 2021 will go, but if we hold onto DD, it's hard to imagine the 2021 class not being a significant upgrade.
For someone who thinks this staff gets too much criticism for its recruiting ability I think you have painted as positive a picture as possible about this class. I'm hopeful we land the TX DEs and wrap up with 2 of the 3 CBs between mcglothern bermudez and denson. If so, while we may still have to hold our noses a bit this class will be passable.
I've been very critical of this staff's recruiting, and I have expressed my dissatisfaction with how the 2020 cycle has gone before, but at this point we don't need more posts about how awful and unacceptable this class is, we are all well aware of it at this point and it's basically just noise. Instead, I tried to examine this class for what it is, what the size means as far as roster impact, how we can actually salvage something at some key positions from this class, and how we have the opportunity to at least close this class on high note and headed in the right direction on the trail moving forward. Not trying to sunshine pump, but I do actually see a path where this group of RB's and (potentially) DE's could have a big impact moving forward for the program.
Yea I'm not being critical of your positivity, just recognizing it and commenting that even though I tend to see recruiting under Fuente in a favorable light you still managed to put together a more positive spin on 2020 than I probably could have at this point. I appreciate it.
I wrote my response in a confusing manner. I was agreeing with you and using that comment as an opportunity to explain my stance further, which I probably should have done at the top of my original comment. We are on the same page haha.
via GIPHY
I'll raise you a
JenniferAnnistonWe'reTheMillersDance.gif
Linky here
Edit: You can say that again...
The small class size being timed right is a great point. It's almost as though it was intentionally set up to coincide with Bud's departure.
2016: This is home
2017: NC2VT
2019: TX2VT
2023: Guam2VT
I can assure you there are not enough athletes in Guam to build a program around.
Interesting.
So Guam and Virginia have something in common...
The recruiting experts at TKP will declare it "an underrated and discovered hotbed" soon enough.
Guam pls
For a second, I was really confused as to why someone was flying from Richmond to Blacksburg. Then I saw the TX tag. Coach Beau really has us going all out down there, doesn't he?
Man, I can't wait to see how Mack Brown butchers that name when he's calling our games again in a few years.
Thinking this could be the 3rd of Beau Davidson's "3 Amigos" from earlier.
With all these changes sure hope we are taking care of Beau
What exactly is his role? I realize he's stirring up a lot on twitter but who has he landed? Tx2vt is awesome but I am cautiously optimistic
Anyone know if any of our expected signings would be early enrollees and could count against this year's scholarship limit? Thinking about it especially with Ellis and Proctor outgoing during camp. Also, not sure how Kane and Porcher going portal route in-season affects limits. Pritchard medical retirement opens another slot as well.
I don't see how that affects the 85 person scholarship limit. Anyone signing would still need a scholarship for the 2020-21 academic year, right? If you're talking about the 25 signee per class limit, the size of this class pretty well eliminates those concerns. Early enrollees might allow us to count some guys with the previous class (if we weren't at 25) but that would seemingly only matter if we "oversign" next year's class to the tune of 35+ recruits.
Go Hokies!
Umm did you watch that entire GIF? because that is a no.
Shit! No I did not it froze before the last frame! Oh my god.
I thought maybe you were just really really happy??? But I hoped not.
I looked but I'm not seeing a gif?
Okay. Now you kind of have to re-post it
/ssssuspenseiskillingme
Ok, so my initial thought was post a gif like feed me, like Zeke, but since we haven't heard much about the offensive side, I thought I would be clever and post a gif of someone crushing a corn cob (of which there are numerous gifs). Well, unbeknownst to me, I chose without letting the gif fully load on my phone, and the one I unfortunately chose has a very sudden and unexpected quick turn of events in the last frame. Did not convey my sentiments to say the least.
You can only repay your debt by re-posting the gif and if you don't know how, I point you towards someone else on the site who does.
Let's see that puppy.
Be happy about that.
I.......... I guess....... is this what you find at the bottom of the internet?
FYI Dematrius Davis beat Michael Brewer's high school (Lake Travis) 49-38 tonight to move on to the 6A DI state championship game. The score makes it seem a lot closer than it was, it was a blowout at the half (28-3).
⁉️
I like the positivity but question the math skills lol.
🤔
🤔
🧐
👀
💩
Hokies .... start jumping #TX2VT #HokieNation 🦃 pic.twitter.com/mMQXCS9oPP— RobertWooten ¹⁵ (@Robjayy15) December 15, 2019 " target="_blank">
Yeeeeeeesssssssssss
BIG get
So he committed? Hard for me to follow all these threads and have t seen it anywhere else
I think his official announcement is on Wednesday according to 247, but I would say with him posting this and making it his pinned tweet as well as his communication with current VT players and other Texas kids pushing the TX2VT movement I think that's pretty much a done deal unless this is a massive troll job to VT which I just don't see it
So...we're fucked?
With ESD Wednesday the real moves will be known soon right guys? RIGHT GUYS
He likes Young Thug, cool, cool.
A million percent committed! Flip from BGSU
Not just flipping for Bowling Green tonight. Just picked up a DE over a couple P5 teams.
we got Beadles/Bailey, now we gonna get Wooten and Bryant? That's 4 DE's in one class.
love it
Y'all get me to 20 turkey legs on this post, I may or may not post something funny
Aww, come on y'all, what is this getting downvoted? I think it's hilarious. I'm not quiet sure how I feel about recruits soliciting for followers on Twitter especially with all the people tweetin at cruits after following them but this is a funny comment.
If it leads to more TX croots and/or blue chips, i'll follow every single damn one of em.
We got you to 36, can more Hokies turn up and get you to 50?
Lets go #hokienation #showup #follow #Legs #turkey #popularpost #somethingfunny
#HokieNation best I've ever seen
If you join The Key Players Club, we can get you to a 100
/Dusts off the 1,000,000 upvote button.
I know everyone is tuned into to what the Texas kids are doing (wait until Wednesday), but I interviewed grad transfer Khalil Herbert and based on a 15-minute conversation, and I haven't watched a lick of film, he was a very good get. He's a very mature and down to Earth kid.
that's awesome to hear. I watched some of his film and he looks like a get just off that. Glad he's also not going to be a locker room cancer.
NBA
34 P5 offers is a who's who list of college football powerhouses and then some; missouri city is Houston area
This Texas-to-Virginia recruiting thing seems to be paying off more dividends than I ever could have expected. Even if we only land one more of these guys, it really seems like we've made ourselves a visible option down there. Whoever bought the pipeline upgrade in NCAA14 maybe should have done it sooner.
SWVA is a huge cultural match for Texas. Getting exposure there is going to pay off exponentially
I'm sorry what? Aren't most of these kids in Houston metro area?
Not that area specifically, just talking about exposure in general in Texas. When you recruit out of the big programs, the whole state takes notice
Not to piss in anybody's corn flakes but some of this may just be to bump Twitter follower numbers. Better to wait an see who signs.
I'll believe it when they sign on early signing day.
In the mean time, it's just something to pass the time.
How silly is it that the 37th ranked player in Texas is ranked 228 nationally? That talent pool is DEEP
Not to throw cold water on the TX2VT thing, but Texas HS football isn't just a past time, it's damn near a religion. And rating services are in the business to sell info and subscriptions. And that level of passion likes to hear want it wants to hear.
I'm not saying by any stretch that Texas HS football isn't any good. And it's a big state so naturally the talent pool will be deep. But ratings can tend to be inflated for Texas HS players too.
I've said this once and I'll say it again- back up the damn Brinks truck to Beaus house
If we start landing 4 star kids out of Texas it will only be a matter of time. The problem is, the Brinks truck will have TAMU window stickers.
I'm really liking Wooten
This kid gets it. Hoping that it isn't a ruse because that has Hokie written all over it.
Hoping he can become the new James Gayle of hating UVA
That is some Sith level hatred already
Was James Gayle in town during his visit? His HooHate raking is 4 star with room for a 5th by signing day.
HooHate ranking.
Offered one of the top punters in the nation
https://twitter.com/moorepete18/status/1206629901434019843
Yeah, but does he have a good Twitter game?
He doesn't appear to be Australian so I'm not sure how I feel about it.
As long as he can troll UVa fans, I'll allow it.
evidently we got a kicker? and he's signing today but today's not signing day?
From reports earlier in the year:
Wow, that is some clean graphic design
Who is CoachBurnhamVT??
special teams GA according to his twitter bio
Thank you for being polite in your "just click the link dummy" response, haha. I don't twitter, so it went right over my head that the link would have his profile and not just his latest tweets. I thought maybe we had a coach hired but not announced and the croot let the cat out of the bag.
My co-worker is his cousin. Kid is super pumped to come to Tech
Follow Up
Why doesn't 247 have our correct logo? I'm not sure what grey clouds have to do with VT.
Weather forecast for the next 4 months
Thank you. For those of us who don't stalk people on social media, this helps.
Yeah I didn't know who it was at first either, figured I wasn't the only one :)
Embeds are so helpful! Especially this time of year when there's so many names and late targets and also when it's tough to keep the classes straight
texas pls
I hope to god these guys sign on Early Signing day because they're teasing us hard otherwise.
I've been hurt before.
And I'll be hurt again
If this doesn't pan out it'll be the hardest we've ever been played.
I was thinking this earlier, but didn't say anything cause they seem all in...but it just goes to show how jaded we've all become.
If this doesn't happen, I'll never believe another word a recruit says until they're signed, lol.
I'm already there. A practically nonexistent part of me is excited about the Tx guys... 99.9999% of me is expecting the let down.
If this happens does our team start running out to Enter Sandman with a Lone Star flag as well?!
If the Lone Star brings 4 and 5 stars who pan out with them, yes
Could we get a special patch on each player's left shoulder with their home state flag like Army/Navy had different military units?
Would really let our guys show some state pride which could play to other recruits, y'know?
That's an awesome idea! Could also do something like the shape of their state then "to"/"2" (do we want to be grammatically correct?) - or an arrow - then the shape of Virginia, or something along those lines for all these other states to VT movements.
Someone does a helmet sticker on the back with players home state not sure which team though.
Maybe they can do something like this on the helmets. A hokie track on each players home state.
I sure hope so. I'm getting a bit fired up over this, and the letdown would really suck.
How does the class rankings look if the Texas guys commit?
If Wooten, Bryant and McGlothern commit, class would be 50ish (167.64 Team Score per 247 Calculator). Not sure what other 2020 TX guys we are targeting.
Per 247 if we get Bryant, Wooten, McGlothern and Denson we would have the 51st ranked class. I didnt add Bermudez, haven't heard much about him lately.
Pitt or Ole Miss. didn't take his official after Mitchell released.
Also Tee Denson committed to Kansas St last night and JuCo D-Lineman Devere Levelston committed to SMU
And Alton (?) Brown, the 4* JUCO slotback changed his last official from VT to Ole Miss.
Ahhhh, that's who Alton Brown is.
For a slot back, quick witted but probably slow afoot.
How are class scores/rankings calculated? Does having a small class hurt us?
Yes, but not as much as having a small class of low-ranked 3-stars.
The exact formulas aren't public, but having more recruits provides diminishing returns. Recruits are ordered from best to worst for a school, then weighted by how far down in the school's class they are. So a high 4-star would give us a big bump (they'd be our highest ranked recruit) while only a modest bump to Clemson (being middle of the class for Clemson).
That is a sweet avatar
I was on the ski team for a couple years (yes VT has a ski team). For fundraising we sold merch (mostly to ourselves) and one year we had this sticker, so I just cropped out the letters:
Nice! I was on the ski team as well, long time ago though, 2000-01.
2009-2011 for me. I wasn't the best at racing, but the parties were always fun
Any chance for a Natty?
Lol, a ski team from a school in VA?... No
We did make it to Nationals one year (not me, just the top 5 on our team), and it took us getting to that level for it to even be considered NCAA competition (and that was only D3)
Happy Texmas Eve!!
I'm going to blame you personally if the TX2VT thing doesn't pan out... At the same time, this probably deserves a leg, so here you go.
via GIPHY
His comment deserved a leg... not a good leg.
From Bud Elliott in the Banner Society newsletter:
"84th: Virginia Tech's recruiting ranking. Things got turned around on the field in the second half, but not on the recruiting trail. This is the worst recruiting ranking of any P5 bowl team."
It's inexcusable.
It's also not a big deal as long as next year's class is back around our normal 25-30th rankings (or better?).
Disagree. It is a big deal. You can't fully whiff on classes (even though this one is small) and expect to compete for a conference title.
The staff has put a lot of eggs in the 2021 class, and there is a TON of talent in VA, NC, and whatever we can actually get from a place like TX. A class >25 next year would be a pretty significant disappointment, and would continue a trend of meh recruiting. I'm certainly hoping the updates to the staff help address this.
A class greater than 25?
Rank
Edit - Oh number greater than not better than 25 lol
Hasn't it been shown that the difference between 18 to 25 (ish) isn't all that much while also that getting closer to 10 than 20 is actually a pretty huge leap?
Idk if greater than 25 is a "huge" disappointment, but I'd definitely expect VT to end up closer to 20 than 30. I haven't done any class calculating before (even with the 2020 class) so I guess somebody could probably take the known 2021 targets and gauge what a best case and more likely case could look like. I'd assume best case is probably like 19 or 20 where a back-to-the-norm class with like 5-8 4 stars nets something like 23rd or 24th.
The difference between 25 and 50 isn't that big.
I agree with the bulk of your post. This class is unacceptable and one extremely bad class every 4-5 years, even if it is a small one, will tank a program's ability to compete at a high (conf champ) level on a regular basis. However, one dud does not make a "meh" trend. I've made the argument before, and wont again, that recruiting under Fuente has actually produced better results when it comes to bringing in blue chippers, which data shows is what is needed to compete at a high level. This class isn't continuing a trend of "meh" recruiting. It is a disturbingly bad data point on the heels of what had been two very encouraging data points. For VT to be what we all want this class to be an aberration, not the norm, but there isn't enough data yet to say it isn't just one bad year.
I'm getting the impression that having a player mutiny so bad it results in a disastrous SI article is bad for recruiting.
76th now
Lakem Rudolph says he's signing with us tomorrow.
Maybe I should have asked - my general assumption is most of our commits are signing tomorrow but do we have a list of guys we know for sure are signing during ESD or conversely a list of guys that are def *not* signing now or aren't sure about? I see several commits tweeting confirmations of signing tomorrow but won't spam the board...
Pretty sure that Fu has said before that they expect you to sign on ESD if you're committed, and that if you elect not to, it means staff feels like they need to recruit over/around you rather than wait for it to be official
Fair enough. I may be wrong but it seems like there are usually 1-2 guys who don't sign early each year (Cam Goode comes to mind as one example). Maybe those were agreed upon ahead of time. I just haven't kept up with recruiting as much this year so wasn't sure if there was anyone in particular I should keep an extra eye out for tomorrow (other than obviously the guys who haven't officially committed yet).
I think Cam Goode did actually sign early, he just didn't want it announced because he wanted to announce with others at his school in February. It was a weird situation for sure.... and didn't get any less weird after he made it to campus.
I saw Mr. Rudolph play this year and was very impressed. Has the potential to be a very good receiver.
IT'S HAPPENING! LET'S GO!
Don't know how to embed the tweet but if someone wants to do it for me just saw on The Twitter that DD made a status basically saying if you're not really interested in Tech quit trying to get clout. Basically he meant stop asking our fan base to follow people on Twitter if they're not really interested in us. That tells me he's all in! This is gonna be good HokieNation
Idk, Alec Bryant updated his profile pic and header and removed all the VT stuff, that combined with the DD tweet....
I thought the same but Alec actually liked that tweet by D too so now I'm a little more confused
I think we should all tweet at him and ask him what the deal is.
He has been posting pro-va tech stuff just 45 minutes ago. It looks good for us from what I see.
Unfortunately this doesn't mean much lol
State title game. Still got a pinned tweet and retweets
I got you fam.
My concern is Wooten was doing a lot of talking for himself and Bryant. Then this tweet came out from DD after Wooten changed his profile pic to him in the VT jersey so he was obviously committed.....and from my knowledge no one else was asking for followers.
A bunch of dudes were asking for followers.
Anyone know of any uncommited recruits waiting till February to sign that we have a realistic shot with? Of course, these TX kids came out of nowhere, and some solid JUCOs showed up last year, so who knows but I don't see much left out there. Any word on Lamareon James since Mitchell was let go?
This is good, since he hadn't announced a time, I thought he might stretch recruitment to February. Fingers crossed he's coming to the good guys
I haven't heard any news on Jeff Sims recently. I remember chatter we were trying to flip him. Any chance we can land him?
haven't heard much since his decommitment and at that point 'experts' were predicting Georgia Tech
The experts will likely be correct
CJ Beasley committed to Coastal Carolina. Hope he finds success there.
the CJ Beasley story is why i smirk at a lot of the negative crootin hot takes around here -- some people are gonna be negative no matter what the news is
Just peeked at Clemson's class on 247 for the first time this cycle. So far they have 6 5* signees with another couple in the top 5-10 alone with crystal balls in their corner. That's just plain silly.
Yea I looked a while back and all it did was infuriate me. I can't imagine the angst it would cause now.
They could sign one of the highest ranked recruiting classes of all-time today. Someone more familiar with recruiting than me, should look that up...and also see how many of their recruits are ranked #1 in the country at their position. I think they have the #1 QB and #1 DE committed.
They could easily win 5 of the next 6 national championships.
Have you watched highlights of Bryan Breese? He looks like he could play in the NFL right now. I honestly have never seen a human that big move like him.
10: West End Dining....that's the lowest I've ever seen it ranked
Yeah, but it's the only one on the basketball list too
JHam still gets it. I would honestly commit on the spot for some London Broil via dining dollars
Did you ever do a London Broil sandwich?
Take the London Broil, place on a roll, add the mushroom sauce.
I always got the other gravy because I'm not a big fan of mushrooms. I think I might've done something similar though.
The ribeye sandwich was the best thing on that menu.
The sauce was surprisingly a bitch to make
We used to load up on mac and cheese the random times it was available. Seemed to be once or twice a month.
Don't sleep on the hashbrowns either.
I burned myself many times on those hashbrowns
Thank you for your service. You were doing God's work.
And if you could send a recipe, that would be much appreciated.
It wasn't really all that difficult.
Butter a cast iron frying pan and place over heat
Add frozen shredded potatoes (we used a full bag to fill an 8" frying pan)
Season with seasoning salt
using a plate, flip it over, adding more melted butter to the sides and bottom of the pan
serve when browned
Just be careful. Hot melted butter is not fun when it comes in contact with skin.
I just wish I had remembered the recipe for the bourbon sauce.
I just wish I had remembered the recipe for the bourbon sauce.
Pour favorite bourbon in glass. Whisper "sauce" across the top of the drink. Enjoy.
Sounds like a Churchill martini.
It's exactly how I make my bourbon and cokes when I'm tailgating in lot 2.
Isn't that basically just a martini anyways. Just a classy name for drinking vodka or gin straight.
Dirty secret
There's no bourbon in the bourbon sauce
There is a Hokie cookbook out there. Wife makes the broil on a regular basis.
I'll buy that cookbook for the London Broil recipe alone... Is it this one?
https://www.amazon.com/Taste-Virginia-Tech-Krista-Gallagher/dp/1620860457
That's the one. My wife got it for me a few years ago
Hokie Club is my go to whenever I'm there and they are open.
UVA just signed the #6 OT in the country, #60 player in the nation so that's a joy.
Won't be there for at least 2 years due to his mission trip. A lot can change.
Mormon kid going on LDS mission only a handful of schools would touch him.
The kid has 30+ D1 offers including Alabama so I'm not sure about that
If he was willing to skip his LDS mission in the middle of his playing time yes. There is a reason BYU was his expected Landing spot until Bronco offered and met him.
So.... (1) what's his name and (2) who is going to be in charge of revisiting this signing in two years to remind us how it worked out?
Bronco being mormon was a perfect fit. He flipped him from BYU.
And recruiting kids who will play at age 24-25
visited this past weekend
"Jumbo athlete"? He's 6-0, 225 Not small, but hardly "jumbo."
What is a jumbo-athlete? Just a "thiccccc boiiiii"? Looks like he's currently a RB
BOOOOOONE!
If he's Jumbo, what's QP? What was LT3?
And heaven help us....what was Bucky Hodges?
I'd expect UGA bound, from that list.
and yet, looking at that rating and his rankings, I'd wonder if he's even a take at UGa...
Ironically, neither rivals nor 247 have Indiana as having offered. 247 doesn't even have Georgia.
He tweeted that he's now waiting until February.
What does this relate to? I can't place what they are trying to link.
Full image says "Hard Hat XXI" (in the worst possible Old English font) and you're up with the kids name.
Is he a target for next year?
Is it from some album cover?
Only Dakota Mitchell I see on 247 for 2021 is a S from Winter Park, FL. He has a few big time offers already, but not showing an offer from VT if someone can embed his profile. Looks like a 3 star currently rated an 88 and the #373 player in the country for next year and the #15 safety
Update from the Lone Star State:
Dematrius Davis' (2021 QB) North Shore HS won the Texas 6A D1 state championship tonight 31-17 in front of 40,000+.
Alec Bryant's (2020 DE) Shadow Creek HS won the Texas 5A D1 state championship last night 28-22.
This guy is a potential program changer. He is the real deal - nothing to do with this run. Advanced in various ways and has all the right stuff to be a star for the Hokies. Ignore he is 5'11" - in college game it doesn't matter if you have the combination of patience, vision, running ability and accuracy on the run D2 has
Michael Vick and Tyrod weren't tall either.
Need to keep Dematrius Davis on the commited list for year. That will be the toughest part. I hope and pray we do.
so we can't tweet at recruits but we can pray for them?
The SEC is going to beat us everyday in prayer volume.
Need to hold onto him. It's tough enough watching Jalin Hyatt be completely unguardable in the NC/SC Shrine game right now, and he wasn't nearly as important of a recruit as DD is.
Yes. Let's take OUR state back.
Alec Bryant (4-star DE from TX) just tweeted he's signing out (done with High School) and excited for his future at Virginia Tech.
Early enrollee I'm assuming. If somebody could assist with the embed, I'd appreciate it.
https://twitter.com/ABXCII/status/1209196064286355456?s=19
He was mentioned earlier as being a definite Spring enrollee.
I'm really interested at who else will be coming early.
That's awesome. That's one extra season of conditioning and getting their bodies and minds ready for playing at the next level.
Does he know any OL that he could direct our way? Or maybe a DT?
He didn't say to respect his decision.
What does wgd eyeballs translate to?
Well God damn is my guess
Guesses:
What's good doe?
What goes down?
Whole-genome duplication.
and last but not least....White Girl Drama
Somewhere in that Tweet stream, he says he's still visiting VT, there is time to add another school to that list!
wanna get drunk?
Sure, you buyin?
I see this Tunmise guy almost every morning when I'm dropping off my son! The kid is HUGE!
DD may end up being our best recruiter, he's trying to bring everyone with him...I remember Tre Turner was very active on Social Media as well,
Credit Beau Davidson for getting these kids interested in VT in the first place. I hope what started as a snowball will turn into an avalanche of Texas studs to VT.
Credit to Lecht as well. He's been recruiting his ass off in Texas. I'm still not completely sold on the hire, but he's been integral with the TX2VT movement.
I know its a loooooooooongggg way away, but just a FYI, there are FOUR 5star players in VA in the 2022 class. one of which is currently ranked the #3 player in the country. i know a lot will change in that span, but thought id post it anyway.
Also, what are our positions of need in the '21 class? DT? CB?
I'd like to address WR as we're only going to have 8 on the roster with half with less than 2 years remaining. OL is always something that needs to be addressed. 1 of our 4 DTs will be graduating after the 2020 season. LB is needed as we will be losing at least 2. We're losing at least 5 from the back-end of the defense, so that too needs addressing.
Did I see that Landyn Watson (DE out of Texas class of 2021 4* and top 250 player) is now taking his official in Blacksburg in February? If so - pretty exciting
I know it was posted earlier but for those of us that don't like to scroll up
LSU is leading right now (per crystal balls). Early signing they only took one DE (over his rating)...fun to see how it all plays out going forward.
All of his recent tweets and retweets are about the hokies. So, that's good
I think if we get him, it's a result of the Alec Bryant connection. The group of guys that seem to be talking about VT from Texas all seem to be pretty interconnected already.
Yep, the recruiting within those TX circles has clearly benefitted us in a major way. If we land McGlothern in the late signing period that would only further the evidence.
DD, Wooten, Bryant, all that stuff happening in a short period just isn't a coincidence. Kudos to the staff for those connections, and kudos to DD for being so influential with these other guys.
Awesome!
They should bring their friends.
I do t know if there's a way to adjust the staff but Fuente would benefit from having Des Kitchings on staff recruiting wise. Just dismissed as NC State OC.
Speaking of NC State, they hired Brian Mitchell as their CB coach.
Lulz
I think we're all hoping to hire someone better to replace him, but Mitchell is a good coach.
Not sure for the downvotes, my reaction was one of "oh great, losing a coach to a ACC rival" kind of feeling
He did a great job coaching while here and I am thankful for that. Moving on from him seemed far more reflective of moving to upgrade the position from a recruiting standpoint.
Charley Wiles could end up there too
I'm on mobile and can't embed the tweet but Diethorn just put up a bat signal
Wake Forest starting QB Newman enters transfer portal.
Kinda surprising since he's only a junior and hasn't graduated
He has graduated.
Do you guys think this Belk Bowl loss will hurt us with 2020 recruiting?
Thankfully there's only so much room to fall when you start 13th in the ACC. (And no).
Do you mean 2021?
I would assume yes. This spring will be very interesting.
Individual games don't affect recruiting as much as people think. Even bad years sometimes don't have much effect.
No individual games don't.. 10 years of mediocre recruiting does.
Maybe not 2020 recruiting but overall? Yea. At some point this program has got to get it's identity back, or create a new one. Whatever it is to win games they should win and work from there to challenge Clemson. Right now the perception of the program is at it's lowest that I can remember. Fuente is 1-3 in bowl games. Lane isn't intimidating any longer. Nobody is scared to play VT. Beamerball and LPD are a thing of past literally and figuratively. We are still far behind donations compared to other schools. It's all just "meh," at best. What can turn that around is winning, particularly a bowl game over an SEC opponent. But nope, Fuente and VT fail again when it matters the most and will continue this mediocrity.
Lane came back to life during UNC, Wake and Pitt. The stands at the Pitt game weren't packed, but the atmosphere amongst the fans that were there was awesome.
it was cold, wet and a stingy defense. It felt like Hokie football for 3 hours.
Seconded it was so fun at UNC, Wake, Pitt. Crowd had that excited, let's go feeling to it every
time the defense lined up.
I was at all three of those games and stayed for every minute. I think I commented after one of those games that it was the best game in Lane I'd been to in years. However, it still isn't as intimidating to opponents like it used to be.
We did exactly that in year 1 and yet the following 3 years were worse so... I don't think that's much of an indication of future success.
Maybe it will make 2026 the year recruiting all comes together instead of 2025 like the current plan is
No. Not this year, not next year, not any year. Wins and losses have little impact on recruiting.